March 25, 1901

Linacre, 5, Lansdowne Crescent, Worcester

The scene is the back garden with a green fake lawn covering the floor, a garden table and some benches. There are some pots of plants which display weeds growing amongst the genuine plants. 


As the curtain opens, the ghosts are sitting  on the benches, waiting.

Extra characters for this scene:

Muriel King, 23,(daughter of George W. King, great granddaughter of Elizabeth)

May Stinton, next door but one neighbour, 21

Both girls are dressed in white blouses and A line, long skirts, in plain dark colours. Muriel is wearing a gardening smocks over the top.

Jane: I do hope that your choice this time Elizabeth will be less boring and depressing than our last two visits.

Elizabeth: I deliberately skipped a generation. This is my great great grandddaughter that we will be seeing. I hope she has inherited some of my enthusiasm for life.

Maria: I think they are coming now.



Muriel arrives with the gardening equipment in her hand from stage left. May arrives from stage right.


Muriel: Here, May, give me a hand with this weeding. Who would think there would be weeds this early in the year but it has been unseasonably warm.  Mother says I have to make myself useful. She thinks that I have too many crazy ideas going around in my head. She thinks if she keeps me busy it will prevent me joining the suffragettes.

May: Yes, I’ll help. Have you got another smock? (Muriel goes off stage left and comes in with one, gives it to May, which she then puts on. They both put on gardening gloves.  May then takes the trowel, and Muriel the fork)  I should really be doing my own at home. But perhaps if I help you now, you can help me later. What should I be doing?

(They start to make a half hearted attempt at digging out weeds from the flower pots.)

Muriel: Just take out the dandelions and any other plants that you can identify as being weeds. But I really don't want to be doing this. Now that I know that I come from aristocratic roots, I should have people to wait on me, and they should do the gardening, while I write poetry or something like that. And I still am so annoyed when I think of Blanche Sharp giving away our family ring. I should like to go and find out the people who now have it, and demand that it comes back into our family.

May: What are you on about? And who is this Blanche Sharp anyway?

(They both stop gardening.)

Muriel: She was a sort of second cousin - we both have the same great grandmother, who was Elizabeth Burgess Michell King. It went like this. Elizabeth got the ring from her grandmother who was related to the Paulet family. She then gave it to her eldest daughter, Mary, who then gave it to her granddaughter, Blanche, and now it is lost. Nobody knows where it is. If it had been given to me, I would have taken  more care of it than that.

Elizabeth: What! Has that silly little Blanche lost my ring?

Mary: Be quiet and listen and you might find out.

May: Why should it be so important to you anyway?

Muriel: It represents my ancestry. It represents my connection with noble lineage. I might be related to the Marquis of Winchester - no, take that back, I am related to the Marquis of Winchester, and if I had the ring, I would have proof of it.

May: How do you know about it anyway?

Muriel: Father had a half sister called Fanny Wood. Her daughter,  Edith sent us two letters telling all about it, and about our noble lineage. She says she thinks that Blanche Sharp lost it. Can you imagine that?

May: Why don’t you try to find out more about the family that you think you are connected to? That would be interesting even if you don’t manage to get the ring?

Muriel: (melodramatically) Yes, I will do that. Perhaps fate will have a hand in it. I so much hope that somehow my ancestors will be revealed to me. I feel they are very close to me, right now, and that they want me to find out all about who they are and where they came from and all about them.

May: You do get a bit intense about things, don’t you?

Muriel. Well, all right. You think of something to talk about.  


May: It won’t be long before we are going to the ball and you might well be seeing your mystery man again. Isn’t that more fun to think about than rings and dead relatives?

Muriel: Yes, you are right. Let’s quit this, and wash our hands and go and try on our dresses again. And we can practice our curtseys. I wonder if anyone will dance with me?

(The two girls take off their gloves and smocks, put the gardening equipment on a bench - nearly on top of one of the ghosts, and go off stage right, chatting to each other.)

Maria: Did you hear that, Elizabeth? Mary’s granddaughter Blanche has lost the ring. I thought you said that it would be in good hands.

Elizabeth: I didn’t say that, Mary did. Don’t you remember? Anyway, I like the spark and fire in my little great great granddaughter.  And how nice to hear, without expecting to, about another of my great-granddaughters, Edith, Fanny Wood's daughter.  It sounds as if she is interested in family history too. Between the two of them, I think they might just keep our memories alive. And speaking of royalty, have you seen our past Queen Victoria yet? She will find it strange being somewhere where we are all equal.

Sarah: You shouldn’t mock her. She did her best when she was on earth, and I am sure she will cope with the afterlife equally well. And going back to the other subject again, at least I am fairly confident that my brooch from Grandmother Elizabeth is safe.

Maria: Who did you give it too? Your eldest daughter, Sarah who married James King?

Sarah: No, in fact I gave it to my oldest son, Alfred, but he was so thrilled with having it, that I am sure that he would have kept it safe for posterity. He would have seen that when he died that it would be lodged with someone who would value it.

Mary: But you don’t know for sure?

Sarah: No, but I am like Elizabeth with her ring. I feel that it will all work out all right in the end, and that what should be, will be, and that our inheritance will be valued for many decades and even centuries to come.

Jane: Well now it is only me left to pick a relative to visit next decade.

Elizabeth: Well, I've been meaning to tell you something, Jane. I'm afraid we have come to an end of our special trips. The powers that be have told me that they will keep in reserve for us, one more trip, but it won't be in 1911.

Jane: But everyone else has had their choice, and it isn't fair that I should be left out.

Sarah: You did see your grandson on my visit, don't you remember? And all of these people are related to all of us, after all.

Elizabeth: Well hopefully, when we do get our final visitation, it will be of interest to all of us, but especially you Jane.

Curtain down